PLANT a TREE for FREE , COME and JOIN ME!

I can remember certain moments like they just happened yesterday. One of those recollections happens every time I see a pine cone.

Being a Special Education Teacher for almost 30 years, working with middle school students always required a little different approach if you wanted them to really learn the material.

The students that I taught were mine all day long. Their behavior had warranted their placement into a totally self-contained setting.
Their actions would become so disruptive that mainstream classes just didn't work.
The other students in the room were not learning and teachers were unable to teach, as they were always dealing with discipline issues.

When the situation would finally become intolerable, they would be placed in thebigsweed's Mr. J's class. Along with learning the required subject matter, a large part of the school day was spent learning how to behave, or as I would say, how not to be a KNUCKLEHEAD

For changing behavior I would focus on what I called the 4 C's, Competent, Connected, Curious, and Consequences.

My favorite subject to teach was Earth Science. Taught strictly through the books I was provided was a losing proposition.
Early on in my teaching experience, I had learned that these special children were very capable of learning, but any lesson in which I could incorporate a hands-on activity into the lesson would capture their interest 10-fold.

Here is where the pine cones would come in. This simple hands-on activity, growing their very own trees, tied into so many of the objectives I wanted them to accomplish.

The pine cones I had collected would pretty much be handled like this. They would be hung to dry and slowly the scales of the cone would open, a little more each day.

After a week or so, the seeds concealed beneath the scales of the pine cone would start to drop from the cone.
Along with the students, I was always amazed by the number of seeds that a single pine cone would produce.

The very first thing every student would do as they entered our room each morning would be to tap on their cone and watch the seeds twirl around as they slowly descended to their resting place.

Lesson upon lesson could be established along the way.
This one activity crossed over into so many other subject areas. Before the seeds were even planted, lessons involving the water cycle, layers of the earth, conservation, deforestation, sustainability, photosynthesis, compare and contrast, mathematical exercises including, (mean, median, mode, average, estimating, probability, ratios, %, decimals, and so many other need skills, would become more perceivable by the waiting senses.

When it was time to Grow a Tree for Free, these now highly motivated learners, were all in.

Along the way, all of the 4 C's, **Competent, Connected, Curious, and Consequences that I had mentioned earlier, came into play.

• curiosity - their interest in learning became intrinsic.
• connected - with learning came a new sense of affiliation and acceptance by their peers,
• competent - mastering even the smallest of anything would bring a smile to their faces as self-esteem was slowly replacing the dread of constant failure.
• consequences - participation equaled results which was a product of behavior, appropriate or otherwise.

For 27 years I enjoyed doing this activity with the wonderful boys and girls that were under my care.
I use the word care instead of instruct because from 8 am until 3 pm they were with me. I was the guy that would be spending more time with them than any other adult, including parents if they had any.

I think the most valuable lesson that I learned by doing this activity with these kids, was that by giving someone the responsibility of nurturing, you have given them a reason to CARE.
When these tiny seeds would 1st show that they had germinated, you would think that my students were caring for a child.

This activity that the students so enjoyed was done right around this time of year.
Nurturing these tiny conifers would last for a few more months until they could be transplanted outside, at which time the students would take them home.

Over the years of teaching in a school district that was truly a melting pot of nationalities, 100's of these saplings have found a small piece of dirt within the city limits.
I know the location of a few dozen of these trees that came from Room 113, and the students who planted them. When I left the area 10 years ago these trees were full-blown pine cone-producing giants.

In a small way, I do believe this simple experience helped to turn these youngsters into good people.

Over the years we have planted hundreds of trees on the farm and next year we will be finding a spot for this year's FREE TREES.

This is a wonderful educational activity that can be enjoyed by all of our students, namely our children and grandchildren.

Stewardship is up to all of us, as we are the ones responsible for the ethics that integrates the responsible planning and management of our land, that's if we want to grant future generations the same opportunities we have had to flourish under #Mother #Nature's canopy.